1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technique for printing an image by ejecting ink from an ejection head.
2. Related Art
A printing apparatus such an ink jet printer which prints an image by ejecting ink from an ejection head has been widely used. Ink which is to be ejected is contained in a dedicated container which is called an ink cartridge. The ink is supplied to an ejection head by the weight of the ink itself or a transmitting pump.
The ejection head has a complicated structure so that fine ejection nozzles for ejecting ink and narrow ink passages for guiding the ink to the ejection nozzles are formed in an inner portion of the ejection head. Therefore, if the ink having an inappropriate property and state is supplied, the ejection nozzle or the ink passage may be clogged, so that finally it is necessary to replace the ejection head. Accordingly, in order to avoid the ink which is not appropriate from being supplied, a memory such as an IC chip is mounted on the ink cartridge, and authentication data are stored therein. By doing so, if the ink cartridge is mounted on the printing apparatus, the authentication data stored in the memory are read out, and it is determined whether or not the ink cartridge is a genuine product. If the ink cartridge is a genuine product, it may be determined that the ink of the inner portion thereof is ink having the appropriate property and state (refer to JP-A-11-237816).
In addition, since the ink cartridge has a limitation in the amount of ink contained, in the case of mass printing, the printing may be stopped several times so as to replace the ink cartridge. Therefore, there is a technique where the ink is supplied from an ink tank provided to the printing apparatus and, if the ink is reduced during the printing, the ink is refilled from a separately prepared ink bottle to the ink tank, so that the printing may be continuously performed (refer to JP-A-2000-211155).
However, in the technique capable of performing continuous printing by refilling ink from the ink bottle or the like, the following problems may occur. First, it may not be determined whether or not the ink used for refilling the ink tank is the ink having the appropriate property and state. Therefore, an inappropriate ink is supplied, so that clogging occurs in an inner portion of the ejection head. There may be a problem in that it is necessary to replace the ejection head. In addition, even in the case of the appropriate ink (recommended ink) of which the use is recommended by a maker of the printing apparatus, once the ink bottle is opened, the property and state of the ink are deteriorated as time elapses. Accordingly, if the ink which is deteriorated due to the elapse of a long time from the opening is used for the refilling, even in the case where the refilled ink is a recommended ink, an inner portion of the ejection head may be clogged.